


Promise

by tenesol



Category: Final Life
Genre: Angst because that's all I know how to write, Asada is a good big brother, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Risa is awesome, Ryo is a protective... something, Song Sion is a Smol Precious Bean, Song Sion is younger than he seems, Tell me what you think, and he's love-starved, anyway, but damn it i swear, first fic on anywhere ever, he's almost a dad but i dunno, i can't believe i'm the first person to write a fic for this show, i will cry if that ends up being the case, i will take that responsibility, if i have to be the only supplier, of Final Life fics, please love this poor boy, there's some fluff in here too but it's sparse, you should all be ashamed of yourselves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 10:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21474691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenesol/pseuds/tenesol
Summary: Risa pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she sat in the hard plastic hospital chair. Asada sat a respectful distance away, nervously playing with the cuffs of his sleeves.Across from her sat Sion. Unmoving, staring lifelessly at the wall behind her.And Ryo...
Relationships: Song Sion & Kano Risa, Song Sion & Kawakubo Ryo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Promise

The whole thing was a complete shitshow.

A group of unknown individuals had locked down a building, trapping hundreds of people inside. Their team was called in, as they always were, and they’d successfully infiltrated the building.

Except once they had, the criminals found out pretty damn fast. To top it all off, there were a lot more than they’d been told there were.

And now this.

Risa pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she sat in the hard plastic hospital chair. Asada sat a respectful distance away, nervously playing with the cuffs of his sleeves.

Across from her sat Sion. Unmoving, staring lifelessly at the wall behind her.

And Ryo…

Sighing, Risa lifted her head with the intention of snapping at Asada to stop fidgeting, but the sound of footsteps caught her attention instead.

A doctor rounded the corner. Risa was already on her feet.

“How is he?” she demanded.

The doctor smiled, taking her harsh tone in stride. “The operation was successful. He lost a lot of blood, but we’re confident that Kawakubo-san will make a full recovery.”

Asada sagged in his chair, a large sigh of relief escaping him. Even Sion seemed to relax.

With a curt nod, Risa bowed and thanked the doctor. The doctor nodded with a gracious smile and turned to leave.

“Wait!”

The doctor paused, quirking an eyebrow.

Risa hesitated. “Can he… can he take visitors?”

“Ah. I’m afraid the nurses are still prepping to move Kawakubo-san to his room, but if you like I can show you where his room is?”

“That would be wonderful, thank you.” Risa bowed low.

“Of course. Follow me.”

Risa fell into step behind the doctor and Asada rose to do the same.

Sion caught Risa’s sleeve as she passed.

“Kawakubo-san,” he whispered before she could glare at him. “He will be okay… right?”

Pausing, Risa looked at him – _really_ looked at him – and realized just how right she had been, that first time she’d seen him.

He _was_ young.

Sitting there, hands shaking almost imperceptibly and still covered in Ryo’s blood…

Sion looked like a scared kid, waiting for news about a family member.

Risa’s face softened. Grabbing Sion’s wrist, she ignored his confused expression and pulled him up.

“Come on,” she ordered. “The doctor is going to show us Ryo’s room, didn’t you hear? What are you still sitting for?”

Sion blinked, not showing any sign of understanding, but let Risa pull him along.

After the doctor left them in Ryo’s room, Risa gave Sion a push in the direction of the attached bathroom.

“Shower.” Sion opened his mouth, brow furrowing, but Risa cut him off. “None of that. Shower, now. Asada will get you some clothes, alright? Go.”

Sion studied her for a moment. Without a word, he turned and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Risa didn’t move until she heard the shower turn on. Her shoulders dropped from their authoritative set and she looked at Asada.

“Do you think you could get clothes? Spare scrubs or a robe? Something?”

Asada nodded, quietly slipping out of the room to find a nurse.

Dropping into a chair, Risa rested her head against the wall.

What a shitshow.

  * • •

_“Sion!”_

Standing motionlessly under the warm spray of water, Sion stared at his bloody hands.

The bullet had been meant for him.

_Ryo slumped against the wall. The attacker was no longer a threat, taken care of with a well-aimed shot._

_“You alright?” he asked, voice rough._

_Sion didn’t answer, unable to tear his eyes away from the steadily growing patch of blood on Ryo’s shirt._

_“Sion!”_

_His head snapped up. Ryo studied him and Sion stared back._

_Huffing out a short breath, Ryo motioned to Sion. “Help me get up.”_

_Sion obeyed, carefully wrapping an arm around Ryo’s waist and allowing him to get up at his own pace._

_Ryo swayed on his feet, face pale but resolute. “You can let go now.”_

_“No,” Sion said automatically._

_With a glare, Ryo opened his mouth to reiterate the order._

_A shout came from the end of the hall._

_Sion dragged Ryo around the corner before the first bullet hit the wall behind them. Grunting in pain, Ryo tried to jerk himself away. “Sion, let go.”_

_Sion shook his head. “You are unable to stand. You will be too slow.”_

_Ignoring Ryo’s muffled cursing, Sion pressed the button to call the elevator._

_“What are you doing?” Ryo hissed. “The elevator?”_

_“No other way,” Sion said shortly._

_Ryo growled, the sound interrupted by the elevator dinging and sliding open. Sion practically threw Ryo in, repeatedly jamming his finger on the door button as the gunshots and shouting came closer and closer._

_Enraged eyes appeared at the door and Sion’s own eyes widened. The angry man raised his gun._

_The elevator doors closed._

_Sion hit the button for the lowest level and turned, dropping to his knees at Ryo’s side._

_“Sion,” Ryo said as Sion shed his jacket. _“Sion.”

_Wadding his jacket into a loose ball, Sion pressed it down on Ryo’s wound as hard as he could. Judging by the cut-off groan that followed, it was hard enough._

_Ryo let a lungful of air escape him through gritted teeth. “Are you going to listen to me now?”_

_Sion’s eyes briefly flicked up to meet Ryo’s before once again concentrating on the wound._

_“Sion,” Ryo sounded almost exasperated, but that was wrong. Exasperated was fond. Ryo was not fond, not of Sion. “When those doors open again, find a place to hide.”_

_Clenching his jaw, Sion didn’t respond._

_“Sion, you better be listening to me,” Ryo warned. “I have a gun. I can take care of myself. You need to take my phone and find a place to hide, then call Risa or Asada. Tell them what happened and where we are.”_

_Sion tightened his grip on the slowly drenching cloth, making no effort to reply._

_“Sion.” Ryo’s voice was sharp. “Answer m-”_

_The elevator jolted and stopped moving. The lights promptly shut off as well, leaving the two of them in a near pitch-black darkness._

_Sion blinked, allowing his eyes to adjust. He took a deep breath and once again put all of his weight on Ryo’s abdomen._

_Ryo didn’t make a sound._

_Sion’s eyes widened. “Kawakubo-san?”_

_No reply._

_“Kawakubo-san! Hey, answer me!” He didn’t even notice that he’d slipped into English again. “Kawakubo-san! _Ryo!”

“Sion?”

Sion’s eyes darted to the door, body tense.

“Sion?” Asada’s voice came again. “I got you some spare scrubs from the nurses. I’ll leave them right outside the door, alright?”

Sion didn’t answer, staring at the door until Asada’s footsteps grew quieter.

Turning back to his hands, Sion gazed sightlessly at them for a moment longer. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

Shower.

Letting his mind latch on to Risa’s order, Sion started scrubbing at his skin.

  * • •

Risa and Asada bowed as the nurses left, giving the two detectives privacy with their unconscious teammate.

Asada sighed, rubbing at his forehead.

“He’s going to be alright,” he repeated what the nurses had said, mostly to reassure himself. “He just needs to rest and let himself heal.”

Risa huffed. “Since when did he ever do _that_?”

Chuckling, Asada sat in a chair at Ryo’s bedside. He closed his eyes and listened to the heart monitor.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

“How’s Sion?” he asked quietly.

Risa shrugged. “I’m not sure. He doesn’t exactly show much.”

Asada sat up straighter in his chair. “He sounded plenty desperate when he called,” he reminded her. “I never thought I’d be able to _hear _how he felt.”

“Yeah,” Risa gazed up at the ceiling. “Only time I’ve ever heard him raise his voice above a damn whisper.”

_“Sion!” Risa barked. “Tell me what’s goi-”_

_“Ryo has been shot,” Sion cut her off, voice rising with every word, “and we are trapped in an elevator on the west side of the building. Hurry. Up. Now!”_

Risa didn’t think she’d ever forget the wild look in Sion’s eyes when they pried the elevator doors open.

A quiet creak came from behind her, and she twisted around in her seat.

Sion stood still, taking in Ryo’s appearance. Water dripped down his face from his hair. The scrubs were a little too big and hung off of his slight frame, but the blood was gone from his face. And arms. And chest. And-

Risa shook her head, forcing away the memory of Sion covered in Ryo’s blood.

“How are you feeling?” Asada asked softly.

Sion, true to form, didn’t answer, instead turning his attention to the other bed in the room.

“Did someone else get hurt?”

“No, no,” Asada was quick to assure.

“That bed is for you, Sion,” Risa said.

Sion’s brow furrowed. “But I am not injured?” he questioned haltingly. “Why would…?”

“It’s for you to sleep on, dumbass,” Risa snorted. “We sure as hell aren’t going back to the station tonight, and you need sleep.”

“So do you,” Sion said, causing Risa to lift an eyebrow. Arguing? That was new.

“Sion…” Asada began.

“Just take the bed,” Risa interrupted.

“But-”

“Sion,” she said sharply. “Take the damn bed. I’m too tired to argue with you right now.”

Sion fell silent. Risa watched the bed dip out of the corner of her eye and chanced a look – Sion was lying down, faced away from them.

Sighing, Risa let her head fall back.

Now all they could do was wait.

  * • •

Risa’s eyes opened slowly as she tried to reorient herself.

Hospital chair. Ryo’s room. Crick in her neck.

Right.

Sitting up straighter, Risa stretched with a quiet groan. She rubbed at her eyes and glanced around the room.

Ryo was about the same as before. Asada was asleep, his mouth hanging open and his head tilted back. Risa smiled and turned to look at Sion.

At some point, Sion had turned around. He laid curled up on his side, face soft and peaceful as his slow breathing ruffled his hair. One of his hands was tucked under his chin, and the other was stretched out as if he had been reaching for Ryo when he fell asleep.

“Is everyone okay?”

At the hoarse whisper, Risa’s head whipped around to stare at Ryo.

“No, everyone’s not okay!” Risa barely remembered to keep her voice down. “Look at you!”

The corners of Ryo’s mouth twitched upwards. “I can tell I’m not fine. Did anyone else get hurt?”

Risa huffed, folding her arms. “No. When we found you, we thought that Sion had gotten shot too, with all the blood on him. But no one was hurt.”

Nodding, Ryo turned his head and studied Sion. Risa could’ve sworn that Ryo’s hand twitched towards Sion, not that he’d ever admit it if she pointed it out.

“How is he?” he asked after a moment.

Risa quickly smoothed out her expression. “He was scared. You wouldn’t be able to tell if you weren’t looking closely, but…”

“But he was,” Ryo finished.

He clenched and unclenched his jaw. Watching him closely, Risa shifted in her seat.

Ryo sighed. “I knew he was scared,” he said quietly. “In the elevator. Not of the guns or the criminals. I tried to tell him to hide and call you as soon as the elevator opened again, but he didn’t listen to me. Then the elevator jolted, and I blacked out.”

Risa nodded, drawing Ryo’s attention. “He called Asada. I had to take the phone. He pretty much yelled at us to come get you.”

“Really?”

With a snort, Risa shook her head. “Yeah, really. He kept trying to argue with me once we got here, too. I got him to take a shower with little resistance, but he wasn’t happy about being the only one with a bed to use.”

Ryo’s eyebrows shot up. “He fought… to not take the bed?”

“Wasn’t much of a fight once I told him I was too tired to argue, but yeah.”

“I… can’t actually say I’m surprised,” Ryo admitted.

One corner of Risa’s mouth quirked up. “Yeah?”

“He fought me, too, in the room full of gas.” Ryo smiled faintly. “I was trying to give him the gas mask, but he was trying to make me take it.”

“He had it when we got there, so I assume you won.”

Ryo’s smile faded. “Yeah. I had to hold it down on his face. At that point, he had inhaled more of the gas than I did.”

Risa quietly studied him. “He’s okay, Ryo.”

His eyes flicked up to meet hers. She held his gaze, and after a moment, he relaxed. Just barely, but still visibly.

“I know.” Ryo focused back on Sion’s sleeping face.

“I know.”

  * • •

Risa and Asada headed back to Ryo’s room, armed with coffee and breakfast. Risa reached for the door, but Asada grabbed her wrist.

Glaring at Asada, Risa opened her mouth to tell him off when he tilted his head toward the door.

Risa glanced inside – not letting up on her glare, of course – and her eyes softened.

Sion was sitting up on the bed, head bowed and refusing to meet Ryo’s eyes as the older man spoke softly to him.

“Let’s leave them alone,” Asada said quietly. “At least for a little while.”

Risa nodded and let Asada lead her away… then smacked him upside the head.

“Hey!”

“_Never _do that again.”

  * • •

Ryo silently thanked Risa and Asada for leaving.

Sion still wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Sion, it wasn’t your fault,” Ryo said firmly. “Risa, Asada, the doctors, they all tell me you saved my life.”

“The gun was pointed at me.” Sion rubbed his thumb across the back of his other hand, a nervous tick that had taken Ryo a while to pick up on. “I did not… I did not see it. You pushed me out of the way, and in doing so the bullet hit you instead of its intended target. It was a failure on my part.”

Slowly releasing his breath, Ryo worked his jaw. “Everyone makes mistakes-”

“Mine nearly got you killed.”

“-and if you want to see that as a failure, then fine. You’ve already made up for it by keeping me alive, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter.”

“Why? Because it might happen again? Because there was the slight chance that I wouldn’t make it?” Ryo scoffed. “I’m not going to die that easily.”

Sion clenched his hand, his grip tightening hard enough that his knuckles turned white. “You almost did.”

“But I didn’t, Sion. That’s the point here. I haven’t died, so stop feeling guilty.”

They sat in silence for a moment, which was fine. Ryo was more than willing to wait.

Sion slowly lifted his eyes, settling them on where Ryo could feel the bullet wound in his side.

“Hey.”

There. Sion’s eyes finally met Ryo’s.

Ryo held Sion’s gaze for a minute, taking in the tense set of the younger’s shoulders and the pain held behind walls of cold numbness.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ryo stressed. Practically commanded. “None of it.”

Sion didn’t break eye contact, and Ryo knew he was searching for a lie. Ryo kept himself as open as he could and waited.

Tension seeping from his posture, Sion swallowed and gave a short nod.

Ryo gave an inward sigh of relief.

“Good.”

  * • •

A few weeks later found police cars surrounding a building after a shootout that their team had been caught in.

Ryo stood off to the side, talking to Honda on the phone when a hand latched onto his arm and pulled him around.

Nearly dropping the phone, Ryo said goodbye to Honda and hung up as Sion checked him over for injuries.

“Hey,” he said softly. Sion faltered, looking up into Ryo’s eyes.

Ryo took hold of Sion’s wrists, pulling them down. Sion complied, arms limp in Ryo’s grasp.

“I’m alright,” Ryo promised. “Really. I’m fine.”

Biting his lip, Sion glanced back down at where Ryo had been shot last time. Ryo huffed, exasperated, and was about to open his mouth to reassure Sion when the younger turned his hand and entwined his fingers with Ryo’s.

“Promise?” Sion whispered.

A corner of Ryo’s mouth twitched up into a smile.

“Promise.”

Ryo sat in the backseat on the way back to the station. If Sion’s head settled down to rest on Ryo’s shoulder halfway through the drive, then that was their business.

**Author's Note:**

> So if you've watched Final Life, you know there are some things I'm ignoring. Don't read further if you want to watch the show and don't want spoilers.
> 
> I'm going to be writing more fics for Final Life, and I am not EVER going to acknowledge the whole Risa-is-a-traitor thing, nor am I going to acknowledge the show's ending unless explicitly stated.
> 
> If the characters seem a little bit OOC, I can't honestly say that I care. We only got twelve episodes, so I'm just going to be building off of what was given in the show.
> 
> Thank you so much!


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